


it's a night for running (away from your problems and possibly the law)

by elyteracy



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: College, Humor, M/M, Neil and KEvin being their usual bickering self, Swimming Pool, pre-kandreil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-13 02:58:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14740754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elyteracy/pseuds/elyteracy
Summary: Kevin and Neil learn to be normal college students. It may involve trespassing and almost getting stuck in a window.





	it's a night for running (away from your problems and possibly the law)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zen_fox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zen_fox/gifts).



Neil is doing his statistics homework while absentmindedly planning the murder of his professor. He is weighing the pros and the cons of going through it to avoid his midterm in two weeks when Kevin enters the room.

"Neil," he says with a purpose. Kevin says most things with purpose, but the way he says Neil's name is even more purposeful than usual.

Neil is instantly suspicious.

"What?" He asks, while squinting at his screen. Something is wrong with the data, the software informs him, but he obviously can't find where.

"I was thinking—"

"Dangerous," Neil mutters, frowning at the tiny characters trying to find the wayward comma. It's always a comma problem.

"— that you need to improve your stamina," Kevin continues, ignoring Neil sarcastic comment. "And I have found a way to do that."

There, it is. He corrects the comma and tries to remember what the function for smoothing a time series is. Something about Winter. Winter-Halt? No that's German...

"Instead of our usual night practice, we should go swimming," Kevin says.

"Yeah, sure," Neil mumbles. Halt-Winter... Holts-Winter? He's pretty sure that was it, but the software still resists him, even though Neil is convinced it was the proper function this time and— "Wait, what?"

He stares at Kevin, his brain processing the words. "Swimming?"

"Yes. It is good for cardio, stamina and general conditioning."

Neil turns around in his chair. "Kevin, I don't even change in front of the Foxes. What made you think I would willingly spend an extended amount of time without a shirt?"

Kevin waves his hand. "Irrelevant. I know what's under your shirt and it would just be between us." Neil isn't sure if he includes Andrew in the "us" or not, but it doesn't matter. Andrew has seen his scars.

"I don't have a swimsuit, anyway."

"I bought you one."

Neil closes his eyes for a second before looking back at Kevin. "I will ignore the potential creepiness of you buying me a swimsuit — which I'm sure will fit —"

"Obviously."

"Not making it better, Kevin," he points out with a sigh. "Anyway, as I was saying, when did you even buy it?"

Finally, Kevin looks a bit sheepish. "Yesterday," he answers. "One of my classes got canceled."

"So you went and bought me a swimsuit? With who?"

"I bought both of us a swimsuit." He pauses, which weirds Neil out, because Kevin is not the type to pause while talking. "I went alone," he adds, like this isn't a big deal. Like Kevin Day hasn't gone anywhere alone since he was seven years old.

"For fuck's sake," Neil mutters. There's no way he can say no in these conditions. Maybe he should be planning Kevin's murder instead of his stats professor. "Fine, fine, we can go swimming."

Kevin grins, seems to remember himself, and puts on a serious face. "It will be good for you."

Neil isn't fooled one bit. "Cut the crap, Kevin."

He turns to Andrew who was reading in the sole remaining beanbag (the other one was moved to Aaron and Nicky's room as a form of shared custody) and finds him asleep. It's a bit surprising that he managed to sleep through their bickering, but Andrew hasn't been sleeping that well the last couple of weeks.

He kneels next to him. "Andrew," he calls, keeping his voice soft.

"What," Andrew mumbles, without opening his eyes, but shifting slightly. His glasses are askew, his right cheek has marks from the beanbag and he's curled up on himself. Neil traces the shell of his ear just to see him scrunch his nose.

"Kevin and I are going to the pool," he tells Andrew.

Andrew's eyes flutter open, and his eyebrows pull together. "The pool?"

"Kevin's new workout idea. Do you want to come?"

"No."

"Smart choice," Neil says. He runs a hand through Andrew's hair and gets a tired pleased noise from him. He takes Andrew's glasses off his nose and leaves them on the table. "You should go to sleep in your bed."

Andrew has closed his eyes again and only hums. Neil knows he won't move at this point. He compromises by getting the comforter from Andrew's bed and laying it on top of his boyfriend. Andrew groans something that's indecipherable, although likely fuck off, but pulls the comforter to his chin nonetheless.

Neil stands up to find Kevin, arms crossed, staring impatiently at him. "You done?" He asks.

Neil rolls his eyes. "Yeah, let's go."

 

They walk to the pool as it is much closer than the exy court. Neil is briefly jealous that the swimming team has it so much easier. Kevin opens the door using the key and Neil frowns at his back, wondering how he got it. He decides to investigate this matter later.

He receives a swimsuit in his face for his troubles. "Thank you, Kevin. Your manners are impeccable as always."

"Shut up and get changed," Kevin throws back, pulling his shirt over his head.

"Have I ever told you how much of an asshole you are?"

"Only twice a day."

Neil takes off his pants and shoves them in his bag. "Apparently, I haven't told you enough," he calls out through the door of the changing stall.

"And you're a rude mouthy brat," Kevin says. It's a familiar back and forth. Neil smiles despite himself.

He takes off his boxers to put on the swimsuit. It sticks to his thighs in a way that's a bit unpleasant. He still hasn't gotten used to tight clothings, despite Andrew's continuous effort to put him in skinny jeans and Allison's efforts to change his wardrobe. He takes off his hoodie and shirt but hesitates and pulls his hoodie back on just before coming out.

Kevin frowns when he sees him but doesn't comment. Neil follows him outside the changing room.

Stepping into the pool hall is weird. Neil can hear the water but has trouble discerning the edge of the pool. The moon is barely visible tonight. It makes the water look like a shiny floor more than an actual deep hole in the ground full of water. The effect is unsettling.

His eyes are starting to adjust to the darkness. He grabs Kevin's arm, and snickers when Kevin startles. "Where's the light?" He whispers.

"Why are you whispering?" Kevin whispers back. Technically Neil can't see his glare in the darkness, but Neil is intimately familiar with Kevin's glaring face and doesn't have to. He knows exactly what it looks like.

"I don't know, it seems appropriate," Neil continues whispering.

Kevin finds the light switch. White light floods the room, blinding both of them. "You could have given me a heads up," Neil complains. "I think I just lost sight."

"Find the switch yourself next time if all you're going to do is complain."

Kevin puts his bag down on the bench around the room. He stretches, pulling his arms over his head. The expense of his back is unmarred and the muscles of his back and shoulder blades roll under his skin. Neil pulls at the sleeves of his hoodie, thinking about the scars under the fabric. He traces one close to his hip with the tip of his finger.

Kevin turns around, the pool at his back. "What are you waiting for? We don't have all night."

Neil twists his hands at the bottom of the hoodie. "I can't just feel okay about my scars in two seconds, okay? You don't have to be so insensitive."

Kevin grimaces. "I'm sorry, I'm not..." He trails off.

Neil snorts. "Yeah, you're not."

Kevin comes closer and lays a hand on his shoulder. "Hey," he says, softer this time. "You know it won't change anything."

Neil looks up at Kevin. The pool is close, at his back, and his friend just there, trusting. Stupidly trusting. Neil takes a step forward, and—

pushes Kevin in the water.

Kevin goes down with a surprised curse. He manages to grab Neil's arms and drags them both in the pool.

The cold water is a shock and Neil curls into a ball. He lets himself go down, until he reaches the shallow bottom. He pushes against the floor, and breaks back to the surface.

He shakes his wet hair away from his face. He's still wearing the hoodie. He swims to the edge, pulls it off and throws it on the side. It lands with a slapping sound. "Kevin fucking Day! You're going down!"

"You started it!"

He swims after Kevin who tries to escape him but to no avail. Neil dunks him with a triumphant shout. Kevin flails around before coming back up, gasping for air.

Neil quickly realizes that Kevin is an atrocious swimmer by watching him paddle his way back to the side of the pool. He makes a lot of splashing around, but doesn't move much. Neil, lazily floating on his back, snickers loudly.

Eventually, Kevin gets to the edge and pulls himself out of the water. He lays down, on his back, feet in the water. Neil swims up to him and crosses his arms on the ledge. "I can already see the headline: 'Kevin Day, son of Exy, but barely knows how to stay afloat: a metaphor for his life?' "

Kevin lightly kicks him. Neil grabs his ankle and keeps his hand there to prevent any other attempts.

They enjoy the silence for a little bit. Only their breathing and the soft splashing of the water can be heard. The sound of a door opening echoes around them. Kevin sits up abruptly, almost kicking Neil. His fearful face does not put Neil at ease and he pulls himself out of the water.

"Kevin... just a question, are we allowed to be there?"

"This is private property," a gruff male voice says. "Show yourself or I will have you arrested for trespassing."

They both scramble to their feet. "I'll take that as a no," Neil says.

"Get dressed," Kevin snaps.

"I would if you hadn't thrown my hoodie in the water."

Kevin dumps his own hoodie on Neil's head. "Now shut up and hurry up."

Neil pulls it on, doesn't even bother with pants, but laces his snickers. Getting caught because you tripped on your laces is a dumb and potentially lethal mistake.

Well, not anymore. It's mostly just dumb now.

"There's a window in the locker room," he tells Kevin. It's hard to get rid of the habit of checking every point of exit in a room.

The window is around Kevin's head. It's square, easy to open and a bit narrow. "I'm not sure I can go through it," Kevin says.

"Well, you don't have a choice," Neil tells him while looking anxiously around himself. The security guard is going to appear any second now, he's certain of it. "Listen, it's that or you and your stupid broad shoulders will get arrested for trespassing. Do you want that Kevin? No, you don't. So, now get the fuck through this window because I will leave you here, Kevin."

Kevin gasps. "You wouldn't."

Neil raises his bare wrist. "The clock is ticking."

Kevin grumbles something that may be an insult but grabs the window sill and pulls himself up. "Faster!" Neil urges him and Kevin tells him to fuck off while trying not to get stuck. It really is a tight fit for his shoulders. He lands on the other side like a pancake. Neil has no problem getting through though, and delights at Kevin's obvious exasperation.

"Stop!" The security guard shouts, from inside the building.

The dark and the adrenaline and the way the voice sounds in this very instant turn Neil's blood to ice. He freezes, can already feel his breath quicken, his heart slam against his ribcage.

"Fuck, Neil, not the moment," Kevin curses. His hands frame Neil's face, his thumb stroking along the freckles on his cheekbones. "Hey, I'm here. Your father is dead. You're okay. But we need to get out of here right now or we won't be for long."

Neil takes a sharp breath, filling his lungs. He pulls his hood over his head. "Ready?"

Kevin grins proudly and starts running.

"Stop right now! Come back here!" The security agent screams chasing them. He's no match for two college athletes, though, and quickly loses them.

"Better luck next time!" Neil shouts.

"You're such an asshole."

 

They run a few laps around random buildings to make sure they don't lead the guard straight to their dorm. They collapse on a bench just outside Fox Tower, sweaty, smelling like chlorine and breathing loudly.

Neil still has adrenalin coursing through his veins and giddiness in his stomach. It spills out of him in the form of breathless uncontrollable laughter.

Kevin stares at him like maybe Neil has lost his mind. A second later, he's laughing too, a full happy sound that Neil's rarely heard.

"Fuck, that was fun," Neil says, once their laughter has subsided. "How did you even get the key for the pool, Kev'?"

Kevin ducks his chin. "You remember the Vixens' party three days ago?"

Neil nods. He does remember it, though he wasn't there long. Actually, now that he thinks about it, he did see Kevin and the swim team captain huddled in a corner at some point. He gasps dramatically. "Kevin Wymack Day, did you fuck the swim team captain to get the key to the swimming pool!?"

"What? No! Why would I– No, I did not!" Kevin vehemently denies before he sees the grin on Neil's face. "Oh my god, fuck off. I hate you."

Neil waves the comment away. "That's a lie and you know it," he says. "But do go on."

"He was really drunk, okay? I helped him to his room and he just collapsed on his bed. When I saw the key on his desk, I took it. I knew the vice also had one." Kevin crosses his arms, pouting. "You seemed a bit down lately. I just... I wanted to help."

Warmth fills Neil's stomach. He leans against his friend. "Thanks, Kev'," he says, his tone fond. "It was a bit of disaster, but it worked."

"You're a bit of a disaster," Kevin grumbles, but he leans back against Neil.

Neil's hair is still wet and drips down his neck. He's also still wearing his damp swimsuit, just like Kevin. He shivers, the cold slowly creeping up on him.

Kevin sighs loudly. "Let's go back before you catch your death."

Neil is pleased to see that Andrew isn't in the bean bag anymore. He brushes his teeth, dries his hair with a towel and exchanges his swimsuit for a pair of boxers but keeps Kevin's hoodie. It's big and he likes it. He decides Kevin won't get it back any time soon. Andrew will probably still it from him, after.

He catches Kevin outside their room. He looks a bit uncertain which is not a good look on him. "Did you really have fun?" He asks. "I know you don't like showing your scars." 

Neil tilts his head. "Are you trying to be sympathetic, Kevin?" 

"Yes– No... I'm sorry if I forced you, okay?" Kevin mutters, ducking his chin.

Neil catches his left wrist, curling his fingers around it. "If was fun. We can do it again," he says. "Thank you."

Kevin's smile is small but it lights up his entire face.

 

Andrew calls them absolute idiots in the morning, although he is quite obviously very amused by their antics.

They don't give back the key.

**Author's Note:**

> this is 4 times longer than expected  
> find me on [tumblr](http://elyteracy.tumblr.com)


End file.
